How to Turn Hot Sauce Haters into Chiliheads

January 21, 2015

For as much as some people love hot sauce, others can’t stand the heat. Sometimes I get frustrated and can’t wrap my head around how people can’t appreciate the fresh flavor of hot sauce and how it can compliment many different meals.

Forcing people to try your favorite hot sauce doesn’t work. I’ve tried it myself and you can’t change their taste buds overnight, but can you over months??

The answer is yes.

Overtime you can develop your own taste buds, and build a tolerance to spicy foods.

Here are 3 methods I use to turn non-hot sauce users into Chiliheads

1) Educate them on different types of peppers. Sometimes people don’t like hot sauce because they tried some “blow-your-ass-off” “death-ghost-chilli” hot sauce and swore they would never try it again. Those sauces are extremely high on the heat index so you should let them know that jalapeño and tabasco sauces are mild and have very unique flavors. By educating them on the flavors and heat they’ll be more open to experimenting with a mild sauce.

2) Start cooking with different types of peppers and start with mild peppers. Jalapeño, serrano, and cayenne peppers are all popular peppers that are between 2,000 and 50,000 scoville units (considered mild). These dishes will introduce them to the flavors of the peppers and will include some heat but it won’t blow them away.

3) Buy them 2 different hot sauces. One a mild sauce and one a medium sauce. Don’t pressure them to use it, but they might find themselves being bold sometimes and putting it on an omelet or a dinner that they cook. Once they start using it you’ve won and they are on their way to one day being a hot sauce connoisseur.

It’s a gradual process, but the lessons here and to educate them about what they’re consuming and to not pressure them. It takes time, but I’m a believer that all people can become chili heads if they are trying different peppers over 3-month period of time.

One of our friends from Salamander Hot Sauce make a whiskey sauce which could be another way to get a whiskey fan but a hot sauce hater, into a whiskey hot sauce loving chilihead!